Sleeper Spotlight: Cincinnati Bengals

Having limited success with 2011’s WR2, Jerome Simpson, has set the Bengals on a quest to find a suitable athletic receiver to help draw coverage away from super-stud A.J. Green.  Simpson was allowed to walk in free agency and Binns now finds himself battling for the role with the jettisoned Patriot Tate and two rookie newcomers in the form of Mohamed Sanu and Marvin Jones.

To his credit, Binns has been turning heads since 2011 while on the practice squad.   He’d routinely play the role of an opposing WR1 such as Larry Fitzgerald or Andre Johnson.  Whether role playing or not, Binns was a nightmare to cover and was said to be eating the defense’s lunch daily.  Now with a full year under his belt and a wide open depth chart, Binns is bringing the same level of play to training camp.  Again, he’s turning heads.

The 6’3″ Binns played for the Cincinnati Bearcats and in his final two years hauled in 136 receptions for 21 touchdowns, but surprisingly went undrafted in 2011.  With 4.50 40 speed and relatively impressive athleticism, it’s believed that scouts were scared off by a fairly one dimensional game, sub-par strength and significant lapses of focus, especially with the ball in the air.  Now in his second year, Binns has matured and has embraced the deficiencies in his game with a stronger work ethic.

With no veteran receiver guaranteed to step into the open role, we like Binns’ size and athleticism enough to predict that he will see significant snaps on offense, regardless as to whether or not he formally beats out his fellow receivers for the WR2 role. In an offense where A.J. Green will draw immediate and every-down double or bracket coverage and tight end Jermaine Gresham will be occupying seam routes, a good sized receiver with a wide catch radius should see plenty of opportunities opposite Green and across the middle. In short, Binns needs to be on your radar.

He may have a difficult time ultimately beating out Brandon Tate for the role, but it’s obvious the coaching staff is eager to get Binns on the field to see what type of player he can be.  The now departed Simpson finished 2011 with 50 receptions for 725 yards and three touchdowns.  We believe these numbers are well within reach for whichever receiver steps up to the WR2 role.

Binns won’t be on many radars heading into training camp which will provide time for opportunistic coaches to monitor the situation closely before ultimately deciding on a course of action.  We don’t feel he is a must add at this juncture unless you have room at the bottom of your roster, but if he continues to receive first-team reps, we wouldn’t delay too long before making the addition.